Quickwrite #73: The World Close Up
“Writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives” (Gallagher, 2011: p.24)
Today’s Quickwrite:
This week’s QuickWrite invites you to become a noticer— to take a close-up photograph of something and to use this as inspiration to write! You might take a photo of:
Something from nature (Eg: A honeybee, a flower, bark, a blade of grass, a tree, a feather)
A facial feature of a person/animal
Something to do with water (Eg: water droplets on a window, a sunlit glass of water, a raindrop, etc.)
Something artificial or a material found in a house (the texture of the carpet, plastic, glass, wood grain)
Or anything else you like!
Once you have taken your photograph, look at it up close. Consider:
What do you see? Think of colours, textures, patterns, etc.
What might this feel like to touch?
What does it sound like?
What does it smell/taste like?
What does it remind you of?
If it could talk, what would it say?
What does it make you think, feel or imagine?
Start with a simile: ______is like _____
Start with a metaphor: _____ is a _____
Check out the excerpt from Mary Oliver’s poem ‘When I am Among the Trees’ below as inspiration.
“…Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
Want more Quickwrite topics? Check out the slide deck here, or see it in presentation mode on your Resources page.
Happy writing!
